How to choose the right story to tell? It’s a great question, and one that plagues every memoirist. But it’s the essential question, because if I could pinpoint the one common problem of all memoir writers, it would be the rush to tell us too much. So choose. How? I suggest you start here, reading this fine post by C. A. Wittman, as well as the excerpt from her new book, Synanon Kid. See how she faced the issue of choosing, what she did and how she wrote her wonderful book. [Continue reading]

The best advice for getting a book contract for your memoir is this: Write an Op-ed. Why? Because every piece of non-fiction is an argument and nothing hones your argument like writing a short opinion piece. Do so, build a book from there … [Continue reading]

YOU SHOULD WRITE AN OP-ED. Yes, you. Why? Simply put, learning to write op-eds will transform your writing. While the ways in which it will do so are many, the top five are that writing op-eds will clarify how you feel about something, teach you to … [Continue reading]

LEARNING HOW TO WRITE AND PUBLISH A BOOK includes understanding both what to do and, of course, what not to do. And while I have given many lists to you on the topic of what to do, I frequently forget to discuss the "do not" side of things. So when … [Continue reading]

LEARNING HOW TO WRITE A BOOK just got a whole lot easier -- as it should, since the online world is bringing together people with skills and people with a need for those skills. What a happy combo those make when the subject is writing. … [Continue reading]

About Me

BY WRITING AND TEACHING MEMOIR, I've learned that everyone has a story to tell. My most recent book is "The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text on Writing & Life." (Grand Central). [Read More]

Deadline Calendar

March, 12 2017

Girl Scouts Founded

Were you a scout? It was on this day in 1912 that Juliette Low founded the Girl Scouts. Millions of us were scouts, including me and my sister. But we have wildly different memories of the troop. Why? Hint: Our mother was the scout leader. What to do with those varying versions of the same experience?

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March, 15 2017

The Ides of March

Right. It’s the Ides of March. What is that again? Come on, now. You do know you have to do research when writing memoir, right?

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March, 20 2017

Vernal Equinox

On the Vernal Equinox, the Sun rises exactly in the east, travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the Equinox this is the motion of the Sun through the sky for everyone on earth, with all of us together experiencing the same 12 hours of sunlight. Here in the northern hemisphere, let’s enjoy this first day of spring. How to make something that affects everyone in the Northern Hemisphere uniquely yours? Think in propinquities.

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March, 27 2017

Cherry Blossom Festivals

On this day in 1912 some cherry trees got a very auspicious designation when then First Lady Helen Taft joined Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, to plant two of the more than 3000 trees to be planted in Washington. It was the beginning of Washington’s famous Cherry Blossom Festival. Do you garden? Maybe this will inspire you.